Oct 03, 2024 1:13:26 PM Me

Facts all the way down.

Oct 03, 2024 1:13:36 PM Me

Oct 03, 2024 1:15:51 PM (Read by you after 3 seconds) Tina

Do you want to talk? Sounds like you are frustrated and I don't know how to solve that for you.

Oct 03, 2024 1:19:45 PM Me

Frustrated is a word. Demoralized is another. 🤷🏽‍♂️ And no, there probably isn't anything you can so to solve it. Not sure talking will really help either. I'm just tired of fighting all the time, and yet just yielding to stupidity isn't possible either.

Oct 03, 2024 1:21:07 PM Me

I'm not the only one. There's a palpable dissatisfaction amongst grad students in general. There's always some obstacle, some withdrawal of support, some hoop to jump through, for no obvious reasons.

Oct 03, 2024 1:21:55 PM Me

It'd be nice to be treated like a human being, which apparently is a different thing from a "student".

Oct 03, 2024 1:22:32 PM (Read by you after 3 seconds) Tina

I'm not sure what you are talking about. If you have a specific complaint, that is something we can try to address.

Oct 03, 2024 1:25:10 PM Me

"A" as in singular? 😂 No, but here are a few to start: 1) Having some weirdo audit my online class and receiving a letter from the CLA vice dean about how I need to change it; then being further subjected to the arbitrary requirement of showing my face on videos, which I don't do as a general rule, for very specific reasons — this requirement being a contingency for my even having a class at all, which of course determines funding

Oct 03, 2024 1:26:15 PM Me

2) TSG (who TF even is that) telling GSA now that they'll only fund 25% of our AAG expenses. That's the difference between going and not for many of us.

Oct 03, 2024 1:27:40 PM Me

3) Utter sense of alienation within the department, which I've discussed with you before; to the point of not even knowing who to select for my exams/committee

Oct 03, 2024 1:29:35 PM Me

Oh and back to point #1, they're basically leveraging my need for asynchronous classes (for childcare reasons) against the arbitrary video thing. Like why? Just because you can?

Oct 03, 2024 1:29:35 PM (Read by you after 1 second) Tina

For 1 and 2, we can talk to Kevin and Kim. I think showing your face is a requirement. You can clarify with Kevin. For 3, we need to talk because you need to GENUS faculty on your PhD exam and proposal and dissertation committee to graduate.

Oct 03, 2024 1:30:11 PM Tina

Need 2 GENUS faculty...

Oct 03, 2024 1:31:40 PM Me

I am an excellent teacher and curriculum designer. My asynchronous classes, where I have creative freedom, blows most people out of the water. I am an expert. But I'm being told by shitbrain bureaucrats what I need to do. It's funny.

Oct 03, 2024 1:32:41 PM (Read by you after 4 seconds) Tina

We all have to play by their rules. They would make me show my face and follow their rules too. It isn't a question about whether you are a good teacher.

Oct 03, 2024 1:33:25 PM Me

Of course it's not a question of that because then I could argue. It's instead an arbitrary and nonsensical rule with no basis or logic.

Oct 03, 2024 1:34:23 PM (Read by you after 3 seconds) Tina

It's their rule and their funding so you have to either play by their rule or not get funding. That's the deal. Is it annoying, sure.

Oct 03, 2024 1:34:57 PM Me

It's more than annoying. But okay whatever. This is why talking isn't helpful. I don't think you understand me.

Oct 03, 2024 1:35:42 PM (Read by you after 4 seconds) Tina

Ok. If that is the case then we should discuss whether I should continue as your advisor.

Oct 03, 2024 1:36:47 PM Me

🙄 Who else is there, Tina? Come on. This is not about your suitability as an advisor, but this is actually emblematic.

Oct 03, 2024 1:37:36 PM Me

Talk to me like a PERSON, not an advisee. Do you think of all things right now, I wanna hear "you gotta follow their rules or else"?? Do you know me at all? Heh.

Oct 03, 2024 1:37:53 PM Me

Mother FUCK their rules.

Oct 03, 2024 1:38:42 PM Me

Will I ultimately follow them? Maybe. Will I leave in a storm, burning everything down in my wake? Also maybe.

Oct 03, 2024 1:40:06 PM Tina

I have no power over their rules. Please talk to Kevin if you have concerns about the teaching requirements.

Oct 03, 2024 1:40:53 PM Me

But I don't need to be told the situation. I know it. I've been fighting some version of the same BS literally my entire life. Whether as a 6th grader daring to weave a fictional narrative around scientific research, only to be told "that's English not Science" through my teacher career fighting for students' agency, through countless jobs lost, and the list goes on.

Oct 03, 2024 1:41:54 PM Me

Tina... 😮‍💨 Do you honestly think I'm asking you to solve this for me? Why would I ask you to do something I know you can't? 🤷🏽‍♂️

Oct 03, 2024 1:43:21 PM Me

The difference between you and I, perhaps, is that I will NEVER just accept the imposition of arbitrary unfreedoms. No matter what it costs me. And it has cost me a lot through the years.

Oct 03, 2024 1:44:44 PM Me

...honestly I was just sending you an article. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Oct 03, 2024 1:45:48 PM Me

It wasn't a passive plea for help.

Oct 03, 2024 1:46:26 PM (Read by you after 2 seconds) Tina

Ok. But if you hate the program so much I don't know if you will make it through. That's the big challenge that we have ahead of us. You will need to recruit a 2nd GENUS faculty to serve on your committee.

Oct 03, 2024 1:48:22 PM Me

I don't hate the program. There is no program to hate. It's a bunch of loosely affiliated faculty in a neoliberal university offering classes in their own areas of expertise, or based on their own interests or career advancement goals/requirements, with no semblance of continuity or thematic consistency, let alone any application in the real world.

Oct 03, 2024 1:48:39 PM Tina

Yikes

Oct 03, 2024 1:49:05 PM Me

And, for me, it's a means to an end. Three letters which apparently mean something to some people.

Oct 03, 2024 1:50:36 PM Me

That's not an attack on you, btw. For whatever reason I don't even see you as part of GUS.

Oct 03, 2024 1:50:51 PM Me

Thus my comment last night about planning.

Oct 03, 2024 2:06:18 PM (Read by you after 10 seconds) Tina

Oct 03, 2024 2:09:25 PM Me

Random question. Do you know who in GUS actually read my application to the program?

Oct 03, 2024 2:09:29 PM Me

Did you?

Oct 03, 2024 2:13:29 PM (Read by you after 6 seconds) Tina

The PhD Admissions Committee and me

Oct 03, 2024 2:13:40 PM (Read by them after 1 second) Me

Right and who was on that committee?

Oct 03, 2024 2:13:45 PM (Read by you after 3 minutes, 20 seconds) Tina

Idk

Oct 03, 2024 2:18:13 PM Me

I ask because…my “statement of goals” was pretty clear. No one should be surprised that I’ve come in the way I did, that I fight the way I fight, etc. My position vis-a-vis schools / broader capitalist society was made explicit. And they, whoever they were, read it (did they?) and were like “Okay, come on in. Here’s some funding. (Maybe)”

Oct 03, 2024 2:19:03 PM Me

So if they (whoever) wanted someone who was just gonna bend the knee, follow the rules, and defer to their “expertise”, then…that’s fucking HILARIOUS. And also stupid, and I wonder if they can actually read words.

Oct 03, 2024 2:20:01 PM (Read by you after 1 minute, 23 seconds) Tina

Sounds like you should talk to Kevin.

Oct 03, 2024 2:21:27 PM Me

Why do you say that?

Oct 03, 2024 2:22:24 PM (Read by you after 16 seconds) Tina

Because there is nothing I can do to resolve your concerns about teaching and funding.

Oct 03, 2024 1:41:54 PM Me

Tina... 😮‍💨 Do you honestly think I'm asking you to solve this for me? Why would I ask you to do something I know you can't? 🤷🏽‍♂️

Oct 03, 2024 2:22:56 PM ⇲ Me

👆🏽

Oct 03, 2024 2:23:46 PM (Read by you after 3 seconds) Tina

This is not a productive conversation.

Oct 03, 2024 2:24:28 PM Me

Production isn't the purpose of all conversations. 🤷🏽‍♂️